Main menu

Eneco Tour – Stage 4 Preview

Saying that they’ve had 3 days and so far most have made a mess of things.

As you can see it’s a fairly flat course,so we should have a mass sprint,but what this doesn’t show is the horrendous finish to the stage.

A left turn at a roundabout with 1.5km to go,a 90 degree right turn with 1km to go,a near 90 degree left turn with 700 metres to go and then another horrible right turn with 400 metres to go.

I keep saying it,but it’s all about positioning!With 1km to go you must be in the top 10-15 riders and after the final corner if you’re not in the top 10 then it’s goodbye!

Marcel Kittel won a similar stage in the Tour de France this year,when he powered past a very suprised Mark Cavendish.The problem is,he is off form and even turned domestique in stage 3.

To win this stage you require an excellent lead-out man and an explosive 300 metres sprint.The team with the best lead-out is Belkin,with Mark Renshaw.This must make Theo Bos a contender but he also seems out of form.

Greipel is having massive problems with his team but they have to get it right some time!

Throw into the mix some bonus seconds and we might see a late attack,similar to stage 1.This time the riders have an even better chance of staying away,so watch out for Taylor Phinney and Lars Boom.

A dark horse would be Manuel Belletti of AG2R.He seems to improve as races go on and finished an impressive 6th in stage 3.

Selections:

Not a stage to go daft on!

Bos 0.5 points at 12/1

Belletti 0.25 points e/w at 125/1

The finish could well cause a crash or two,just like in the Tour stage when Greipel went down.